The recent Chris Matthews/Politico.com presentation of 10 GOP presidential hopefuls got mixed reviews about its format. Matthews is a partisan player and it shows. So am I, but I’d just like a forum where the Democrats are asked core belief questions too. If Republicans can be queried about evolution then Democrats should be asked about stuff like pacifism and national sovereignty. And if Mike Wallace over on CBS can ask Mitt Romney about pre-marital sex, shouldn’t somebody ask Hillary about her and Bill?

Romney got a disproportionate number of questions. Matthews showed incompetence above bias by continually going back to the guy standing closest to him. Romney was smooth and knowledgeable, but something lingers. I remember a Wyoming delegate to a Young Republican convention way back who described a particular candidate as a bit too “swave and deboner.”

Rudy Giuliani started his abortion flypaper trip when he landed on both sides of the issue, missing the real one on Roe vs. Wade. You can be hardcore pro-choice and still recognize a lousy Supreme Court decision.

Some of the second-tier are clearly running for vice president. I thought Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore the weakest.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul is clearly the wackiest. Paul’s views on many domestic matters are compatible with mine, but he’s over the top on non-intervention even beyond many Libertarians and his virulence for his own government puts him nearer Rosie O’Donnell.

Immigration hard-liner Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo did nothing to restructure the opinion that he’s a one-issue guy. Part of that may have resulted from the format.

I thought three others deserve a second look — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, and California Congressman Duncan Hunter. All three go beyond multiple choice answers and have some original thoughts.

Hunter is a genuine 19th Century protectionist, opposing both NAFTA and GATT. A decorated Green Beret in Viet Nam and former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, he is person of substance.

So are Huckabee and Thompson. Huckabee is articulate and cogent. Thompson suffers from a charisma deficiency, but his ideas were original and sound, like asking the Iraqis to vote on our continued presence and then abiding by the decision. I wonder why Mitt Romney’s ability to serve one term as governor of liberal Massachusetts is more relevant than Thompson’s FOUR terms as governor of equally liberal Wisconsin.

I saved our own Sen. John McCain for last. As readers of this column know, I have not been kind to him since that flaky Gang of 14 stuff that derailed GOP momentum on judicial appointments. But a recent news event puts him into perspective.

It was watching a pack of British Marines grovel to their Iranian captors. “Fighting back was not an option,” their young officer stated. They were isolated, blindfolded and threatened with a trial if they didn’t admit to being spies. They caved. Worse, the leaders of their country thought their craven behavior was OK.

I thought of other POW’s. The Bataan Death March, the Allied airmen who made the great escape, the guys in Korea and Viet Nam who were tortured (and killed) to force them to confess to phony propaganda. And I thought of John McCain.

Five-and-a-half years in the Hanoi Hilton, two in solitary, and ashamed that he finally broke. He can’t lift his arms above his shoulders. Offered early release and turned it down. McCain went the whole 15 rounds while those weenie Brits didn’t even make the ten count.

Character counts. I have disagreed with John McCain but I never accused him of insincerity.

He isn’t pandering to the base on Iraq — he’s supported the war but been critical of its handling. He didn’t move closer to President Bush, the President moved closer to him.

America would do well with John McCain. That hostage crisis reminds us why.